Traction wheel



Apr. 10, 1923. 1,451,177

3 J. H. PIERCE TRACTIONWHEEL Filed Feb. 8, 1922 2 sheets-sheet 1 JamslLFwrcej ATTORNEY.

.Apr. 10, 1923.

J. H. PIERCE TRACTION WHEEL v 2' sheets-sheet 2 Filed Feb. 8, 1922 Ja wgfl 1 3 1 INVENTOR.

" "ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 1c, 1923.

warren stares JAMES H. PIERCE, OF SHELIBURN, INDIANA.

TRACTION WHEEL.

Application filed February 8, 1922. Serial No.,534,95B.

To all to ham it may concern,

Be it known that 1, JAMES H. PIERCE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Shelburn, in the county of Sullivan and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Traction lVheels, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to improvements in traction wheels and its object is to provide a traction wheel which may be run upon either soft or hard surfaces without harm to the surface of the road or to bridges over which the traction engine may pass.

Traction wheels depend for their pulling qualities upon biting into the surface of the road in order to obtain their tractive effects. Such wheels arefound in practice to be very destructive to the surface of the road and in some sections of the countrylaws have been passed by communities forbidding the use of traction wheels, especially where the cleats usually employed to obtain traction are not of a removable character, for if the surface of the road be somewhat soft the cleats will damage such surface, or if the surface of the road be hard, as when formed of concrete, or cement, or some such material, the effects of the cleat are destructive, often to such an extent as to very quickly destroy the road surface.

The invention, therefore, contemplates the employment of cleats, which, when travelling over the roadway yield to the hard surface, whether of concrete, or cement, or

wood so that no harm occurs by driving the tractor over the roadway, since the invention is so constructed that the cleats will not sink into the surface of the roadway but will yield thereto and ride over the surface without doing any material harm to such roadway.

The result is that the tractor of the invention will pass from a soft roadway to a hard roadway or the reverse without noticeable destructive effect so that the operator of the tractor, without any effort or attention, may pass from hard roads to soft roads or from soft roads to hard roads, with the assurance that the travel of the tractor will have no harmful effects.

This is accomplished by employing automatically yieldable cleats yieldingly held to the roadway so that on passing from a soft roadway to a hard roadway, the spring held cleats will yield toward the axis of rotation will be advancedloy the springs so as to, dig

or bite into the roadway thus giving a firm clinging grip with the dirt'o-f the-roadway. Moreover, the wheels will grip into the'surface of ground such as found in fields, when occasion requires, and the traction is automatically increased as needed.- The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings forming apart of this specification with the understanding however that the invention is not confined to any strict conformity withtheshowing of the drawings, but may be changed and modified so long as such changes and modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the invention, as expressed in the appended claims.

In the drawings w I Figure 1 is an elevation of the traction wheel constructed in accordance with the invention. r i

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail section of the upper portion of the traction wheel with the section in a plane transverse of the wheel.

Fig. 3 is a section on a scale similar to that of Fig. 2, and larger than that of Fig. 1 and taken at right angles or axially of the section of Fig.2.

Fig. iis a section similar to Fig. 3 on a like scale.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown a traction wheel 1 composed of a hub 2,

spokes 3 radiating from the hub, and a rim' 4: to which the spokes are attached in any appropriate manner.

Made fast to the exterior of the rim in any appropriate manner are spaced filling blocks 5, which filling blocks are spaced apart at the ends sufficiently to receive between them the stem 6 at opposite ends of lugs or cleats 7, which lugs are long enough to extend transversely across the wheel for a distance corresponding to the circumferential distance between the cleats 7.

The rim 4 has made fast to it by means of bolts 7 or in other suitable ways, a circular series of stirrups 8 through which the stems 6 are guided and which stems betweenthe rim 4 and the wall of each stirrup remote from the rim, confines'a spring 9 so arranged as to have a certain amount of expansion to and hold the lugs or cleats 7 in the closed position. Each stem 6 is traversed by a pin 10 engaging a respective spring 9.

The traction wheel comprising the invention, comprises the rim 4, which may beof one piece, with an interior battery of stirrups all radiating toward the hub of the wheel. Each stirrup has the lug or cleat provided with a laterally extending bevelled portion 11, and it is the purpose of the pin 10 to limit the radial movement of the stem 6, said pin being so situated that the tend- 'ency of the spring 9 inprojecting the lugs or cleats is to cause them to' project beyondthe outer surface of'the spacing blocks 5 and thereby cause the lugs to enter and bite into the surface over which the wheel may be passing. In the case of soft ground,

whether a roadway or a field, the weight of the traction engine is suflicient to cause the cleats to sink intothe ground to an extent to furnish the requisite traction. lVhen, however, the wheel is'passing over a hard surface, as for instance, a bridge, or a concrete or cement roadway, the weight of the machine is insufficient to cause the cleats to enter'the surface sufiiciently to cause any harm to the surface. In the event of the machine passing overhard ground or a roadway, the springs 9 will yield suificiently to save the surface of the ground sothat the traction engine will pass over the roadway or other surface, such for instance as a bridge, without any detrimental effects thereon.

Because of theyielding nature of the lug supports, no harm can occur to the surface because of the passage of the lugs thereover, for these lugs will readily yield, permitting the lugs to move radially inward and thus save the road surface from any harmful effects due to the travel of the traction engine thereover.

lVhat is claimed is i l. A tractor wheel provided with a ground engaging rim having exterior spaced filling blocks thereon, a series of'lugs or cleats exterior to the rim and movable into and out of the spaces between the adjacent ends of the filling blocks, a circular series of stirrups each with springs at the opposite ends for sustaining the cleats and means for preventing more than a predetermined extent of movement of the cleats into and out of the spaces between the adjacent ends of the filling blocks. v

A traction wheel comprising a rim upon which the wheel may travel, filling blocks extending peripherally of the exterior of the rim andspaced apart at their ends to provide guide spaces, lugs or cleats movable into and out of the guide spaces between the filling blocks and also spaced apart circumferentially of the wheel, the cleats or lugs being provided with spaced stems at their ends movable radially through the guide spaces and provided with expansion springs having a normal tendency to project the iugs, and said springs being of a resistance to yield to the weight of the traction wheel.

1n testimony whereof, I aflix my signature hereto.

JAMES H. PIERCE. 

